is this a good crab or a bad one?

[spazz]

i found this hitch hiker in my acro i got the other day. the pic is kind of bad but the crab is all white with one black dot on each leg and a black face. he has 2 large pinchers on him . he is smiller than a dime and crawls around in the acro. i dont want a crab killing my coral so i figured i better ask the pros.





scott L

[Achilles Tang]

Small pic, but see if you can get a closer look at its pinchers. Do they have for lack of a better discription webbing between them. If so its probably an anemone crab and they are filter feeders. Not harmful at all to your tank. The size and color look right for it to be a anemone crab.

[spazz]

i have 2 porcelin crabs and this is not of them. it dont have the filter arm like the porcelin crabs do.

[Dwayne]

acro crab?

If so, its good.


Dwayne

[otolith]

It's most likely ok, just watch the coral and see how it does. There are many different types of acro crabs, and this is prolly one of them.

[spazz]

thanks for the id. i got so freaked out because i just got this colony from reefer madness and dont want it to start loosing tissue or getting picked at. i did a little more reasearch on acro crabs and from what i gather they host in acro and are actually good for the coral. he is a cute little bugger now that i know he is safe. the wife loves all the little crabs that are in my tank so now i can suprise her with a new one for her collection.



scott L

[David Grigor]

Ditto. Should be harmless....